1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sensor network system, a sensing module, a server, and an association method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Sensor network systems including a plurality of sensors installed at various positions to acquire data such as the temperature from each sensor are known. Such sensor network systems need to know the position at which data is acquired by each sensor. For example, International PCT Patent Application Publication WO 2014/013578 describes a sensor network system in which sensors are able to communicate with each other and data of each sensor is communicated to a parent apparatus through multi-hop transmission (relaying) by multiple sensors. The parent apparatus uses the number of hops to estimate the approximate position of a sensor.
However, according to the above-described technique, a sensor and the position of the sensor cannot be associated with each other unless the sensor is used for multi-hop data transmission. Further, because the number of hops is used, the position of a sensor can only be estimated, and as such, the sensor and the position of the sensor cannot be accurately associated with each other. Further, because the position of an antenna associated with a sensor is regarded as the position of the sensor, the position of the sensor cannot be accurately determined in a case where the antenna and the sensor are separated from each other. Also, a moving objet having a sensor attached thereto cannot be identified. In other words, a sensor cannot be accurately associated with a sensor position or a sensor installation target, such as a moving object to which the sensor is attached, for example.